SLI Toggle?

[gudenau]

Is there any way to dynamically enable/disable graphics cards on a SLI setup without power cycles? This would be good for power consumption and heat output.

[Archangel1994]

The 2nd card turns off automatically if you do not need it if I recall correctly (Much like AMD Zerocore). Also I think you can disable SLI on the fly using Nvidia control panel.

[SovietOnion]

Is there any way to dynamically enable/disable graphics cards on a SLI setup without power cycles? This would be good for power consumption and heat output.

 

Right click desktop, Nvidia Control Panel> SLI Configuration> DIsable/Enable SLI

[Rheinwasser]

you can change it in the driver and some motherboards have dip switches to turn of a pcie slot.

[gudenau]

The 2nd card turns off automatically if you do not need it if I recall correctly (Much like AMD Zerocore). Also I think you can disable SLI on the fly using Nvidia control panel.

Would it still use extra power?

 

Right click desktop, Nvidia Control Panel> SLI Configuration> DIsable/Enable SLI

Not automatic.

 

you can change it in the driver and some motherboards have dip switches to turn of a pcie slot.

That would need a power cycle, no?

[Archangel1994]

Would it still use extra power?

How can something that is not turned on use power?

[Rheinwasser]

-snip-

That would need a power cycle, no?

what?

driver? no.

dip switches? not sure. but i would turn my pc off first.

[gudenau]

How can something that is not turned on use power?

There are lots of things that do, because "off" is standby with most things nowadays. Anything with a remote goes into standby instead of powering off.

[Archangel1994]

There are lots of things that do, because "off" is standby with most things nowadays. Anything with a remote goes into standby instead of powering off.

Fair point. Well off if off (Remember, this is assuming it works like AMD Zerocore). You can still manually turn it off and then the card will just idle barely generating heat.

[gudenau]

Fair point. Well off if off (Remember, this is assuming it works like AMD Zerocore). You can still manually turn it off and then the card will just idle barely generating heat.

So then having a 4-way SLI setup would only have one GPU on when idling on the desktop, correct?

[Archangel1994]

So then having a 4-way SLI setup would only have one GPU on when idling on the desktop, correct?

Again, assuming it works like Zerocore then yes it's like this. Otherwise with all 4 idling the extra power consumption would probably equate to about 10W per card which is not really a lot.

[gudenau]

Again, assuming it works like Zerocore then yes it's like this. Otherwise with all 4 idling the extra power consumption would probably equate to about 10W per card which is not really a lot.

Every watt counts. :-P